A huge thank you to everyone who came out and supported our film at the Capital City Film Festival! It’s always great to get to show our film to a wider audience, and we saw many new faces at the screening, who brought up some great ideas while we talked about the film.
We’ve been a busy team as of late, and we’ll have more updates coming very soon - including information about Kickstarter rewards and DVDs. Stay tuned!
This is why we do what we do. Starting conversation and engaging in new communities; that’s the whole reason we set out to make this film.
Last week we had a seriously great time hanging out at GLCC all day. Colin and Josh had the opportunity to speak to students in the morning giving a quick glimpse into what we learned through the whole TWL process. We were then invited to dinner with students followed by tea and coffee with Ryan [our facilitator] in his home. [He also peeled some carrots for his 4 year old son, who provided much entertainment for our time there.]
After the screening of the film, we went on to have a 2 hour discussion and nearly everyone stayed for the duration of our dialogue. It was so great to hear students open up about how they’ve been thinking about or struggling with similar issues of materialism, and it’s incredibly humbling that we have been given the opportunity to inspire and engage in these students lives.
Multiple people stated they wanted to start their on TWL challenges and our new friend Kevin has decided to be off of Facebook and twitter for the month with only 4 shirts and 1 pair of pants as well. Yeah Kevin!
We’re continually blown away by the reach of our film, and how conversations such as these consistently spring up!
If you’d like to host a screening of our film at your school, house, or community, we’d love to be in touch with you! For more information check out [THIS FORM]
It’s so exciting to be getting our merch supplies in the mail! These stamps arrived today, and we’re pretty stoked to be printing our DVD cases this week. Thanks again to all of you that supported our Kickstarter a few months back! Your rewards will be coming in the next few weeks! For everyone else, DVDs will be for sale on our website soon!
![It may be the middle of winter in Michigan, but that’s not keeping the TWL crew from keeping their local commutes to bicycle. Yes, it’s quite a rush and a chill to bike through the blowing snow get hit with slush flying up as cars go by, but what better way to be present in your environment?
It helps to be prepared though, here are my winter biking essentials:
-Warm boots
-Wool socks
-Gaters to protect my pants from the spray
-rear fender [don’t want a dirty butt at work]
-safety glasses to keep out the wind and snow
-a giant scarf [for warmth and to look great]
-mittens that keep out the most tundra of winds
Get all those things together, and it really is quite enjoyable to take to the snow on two wheels!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/5c4caf6804b7c177ac2daf22d257f2a4/tumblr_mixkjoiWu71rnm96so1_500.png)
It may be the middle of winter in Michigan, but that’s not keeping the TWL crew from keeping their local commutes to bicycle. Yes, it’s quite a rush and a chill to bike through the blowing snow get hit with slush flying up as cars go by, but what better way to be present in your environment?
It helps to be prepared though, here are my winter biking essentials:
-Warm boots
-Wool socks
-Gaters to protect my pants from the spray
-rear fender [don’t want a dirty butt at work]
-safety glasses to keep out the wind and snow
-a giant scarf [for warmth and to look great]
-mittens that keep out the most tundra of winds
Get all those things together, and it really is quite enjoyable to take to the snow on two wheels!
A screening of Thrive With Less was recently hosted in Blacksburg, VA and we received a lot of positive feedback from the viewing of the film. Here’s what they had to say:
How does TWL “translate” from six college students to 46 middle-aged, middle-income people in Blacksburg, VA? We showed TWL and immediately launched into this very discussion. We pondered how this would be seen by the poor. We went back and forth on the differing needs of families with children. We marveled at college-aged “kids” coming to such meaningful conclusions about what mattered in life. More than one of us expressed that we wished we had had this much wisdom in our 20’s. A local member in our community had built a tiny-house as part of her Master’s degree and she came to discuss that experience. This led to a lengthy discussion about housing codes and communal living in the 21st Century. In the two days that followed our showing of TWL, I heard from numerous people how they were still talking about what they had seen. It is fair to say that it gave each in attendance pause. The question, “What’s holding you back?” still resonates in Blacksburg. Thank you TWL team for this important work!
If you’re interested in hosting a screening of Thrive WIth Less, check out our [screening page] for more information.
Only 4 days remain in our Thrive With Less KICKSTARTER. We’re getting closer to our goal, but could really use your help. Would you take a minute to consider donating to furthering this message? Or if you can’t financially help out, please share this post with your networks! Thanks so much for all the support we’ve already received!
Click [HERE] to donate.
From colormake:
While we were in Michigan, we got to meet with the folks behind “Thrive With Less” and catch a screening of the film. We invited Matt Radick, a long time friend of mine, to share a little about his project and how you can support it. -K
Thrive With Less
By Matt RadickAt the beginning of this year, I embarked on a project which has led me to reshape the way I’m looking at the world. In January, along with five other filmmakers, I began working on a film that sought to challenge the consumption based lifestyle that’s become the norm in our culture. To do so, we challenged ourselves to give up driving, wear fewer items of clothing, and live in less space. We wanted to become less distracted get back in touch with what’s really important to us: community, art, and the things that make life truly fulfilling.
We finished and released our film in May. But the challenges have continued to ring out in my life. Through doing this project, I’m less focused on the day-to-day grind of life, and instead, I’m prioritizing my friends and family and making time to do the things that I love. It took a dramatic shake up to make it happen, but every day I’m finding myself more fulfilled by lessons I learned from this challenge.
Our film is finished, but we’re hoping to spread it to a wider audience. We think that everyone can learn from this experience, to challenge themselves to reconnect with what’s really important. And in doing so, we can make a bigger, stronger community everywhere. You can learn more about the project at www.ThriveWithLess.com. And, if you feel so inclined, you can help us bring this message to more people by contributing to us on Kickstarter.
Koji and the fine folks at Colormake were kind enough to help us spread the word about our project and Kickstarter campaign! Check out both Koji and Colormake, and help us out by spreading the word if you can!
Today is a very exciting day for Thrive With Less. It’s been a heck of an awesome journey through the process of making and releasing this film. We’ve had wonderful responses from our community and have people we’ve never dreamed we would connect with.
But, we want to take this further. We want this experience to be able to effect lots of people in the same way we’ve been profoundly effected by it. And we need some help if we’re going to get there. We’ve decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help us raise some money to keep spreading the word about our film and our mission. We’ve funded this entire project by ourselves thus far, for six college students, it’s been incredibly challenging. So we’re looking for some help from you.
Check out the video above and then head over to our Kickstarter page. We’ve got some really cool rewards available if you decide to partner with us, so please do what you can to help us out. And even if you don’t want to contribute monetarily, help us out by spreading the word about our campaign so we can connect with more and more people.
As always, thanks so much for your support. We’ve got a month to raise the funds we need to get this off the ground, please do what you can to help us out!!
Josh, Colin, and Matt were featured on Michigan’s Big Show with Michael Patrick Shiels earlier this week to talk about the film. Check it out!
Accent theme by Handsome Code
